Virginia lawmakers will return to Richmond today to find a legislative fix for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that has frustrated prosecutions in drunken-driving and drug cases and sharply increased pressure on forensic scientists to appear at trials.
Hopes are dim, however, that a single day of legislating can fully undo the headaches caused by June’s Melendez-Diaz decision, which said prosecutors must make analysts available in court to be cross-examined on lab results. The vastly increased demand for the experts already has caused some cases to be thrown out.
“Anything that blunts the serious impact that this decision has on state budgets and the criminal justice system is a step in the right direction,” said Scott Burns, executive director of the National District Attorneys Association.
Virginia forensic scientists see flood of subpoenas
Subpoenas for drug section analysts:
July 2009: 925
July 2008: 43
Courtroom hours for those analysts:
July 2009: 369
11 months prior (total): 230
Source: Virginia Department of Forensic Science
Lawmakers have introduced a dozen bills that would address the ruling. Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax, who originally called for the special session, filed a bill that would require a defendant to object within a set period to the use of a document certifying the lab results, in lieu of the analysts appearing in court.
Some of the bills would allow analysts who prepared the lab results to testify via a two-way video system. Nearly all bills have an emergency clause to put them into effect immediately.
“We’re already stacking up prosecutions, and people are walking. … There really is a need for speed here, it’s definitely appropriate to call a special session,” said Cuccinelli, who is running for attorney general.
The Virginia Department of Forensic Science has seen a dramatic increase in subpoenas for analysts in its drug section, jumping from 43 in July 2008 to 925 in July 2009, the first full month after the ruling. Those scientists logged 369 courtroom hours that month, according to the department. In the prior 11 months combined, they had put in 230 hours.
